The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-03-03

lets or blankets were provided for
warmth. Servants and attendants slept
OH the floor.
Later on III the time Of the Tudors,
/ the .-four-poste' bedStead. an immense
! piece Of furniture, having a canopy
supported at each corner by the posts,
! became ;he fashionable sleeping-couch.
! Some OF the old wills mention '.posted
sett work bedsteads." " These paneled
! hedSteads We're sometimes of elegant
| and massive architecture The col
umns resrmbled huge balusters, and
| rose from =Iuare d,Ido bases. and all
! the frame-pteces were carved with
| decorative moldings OF various pat
| terms. On some of the earlier bed
| ste;tds the column terminated with fig
ures representing the four evangeiists.
In medisvai ballad there Is men
ton made of ''the four @ospellorous
(gospelers or evangelists) ON the four
| pilloues (pillars) and heads of angels,
all of one mould" The invocation
still in use III some of the English
country places is an echo of this old
custom:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that 1 sleep Oh ~
Two angels at my head.
Four angels round my bed
Two to watch aud two to pray,
And two To carry iDy soul away.
Under these great .sset work. bed
steads were put trundle-beds for the
body servants and children. 1t is re
lated of II Spanish page who went TO
England with his master i'll the time
of Queen Elizabeth, that one day while
wandering about the spacious mansion,
he entered the rooms where the maids
We're making the beds, and spying tho
arrangements of the sliding beds was
quite taken with them. In his own
country lie had slept ON straw in the
hostler's loft, but in England he had
found that rather uncomfortable on ac-
count of the cold. So he saws to his
master: Sir. there are a sort of little
beds under the great beds in this
house, which they say are for servants;
| pray you to suffer me 10 lie in one of
them" In the sleeping chamber was
usually a perch. answering to an
old-fashioned clothes-horse. On it. says
an old writer, hang your clothes,
mantles, frocks, cloaks. dOublsts, furs,
winter clothes, and of summer"
Shakspeare's ''second best bed"
with 1.-The furniture" which he be-
queathed to his wife, Ann Hathaway,
was undoubtedly one of those huge
Elizabethan hedsteads with canopy,
curtains and square pillows. The fur
niture consisted of the hanged beds"
harden sheets, of fine flax, flock beds
coverletS, pillow beers and count
er points, SO named from the fact
that the squares were in contrasting
colOrs. The well-to-do gentleman of
the late middle ages kept a good sup
ply of bedding. In The Tanning of
the Shrew," Gremio glibly names
over the furniture of his country
house, and is careful to include bed
apparel.
In ivory Golfers have stuffed my crowns.
In cyprus chests nay arrays, counter points,
Costly apparel tents and canopies,
Pine linen, Turkey cushions. boss d with pearl,
Variance of Venice gold and needework.
The '.Great Bed of Ware men
toned by Shakespeare is probably the
largest bed in the world 1t is of the
Tudor style, twelve feet square, of
solid oak, and elaborately carved. For
three centuries or more it has been
preserved at the inn of the Saracen's
Head in the town of Ware, in Hert-
fordShire. As many a twelve per-
sons are said to have slept in it at one
time. Cosmopolitan EecietC.